I think for anyone who read the books the movie was doomed to stink - where was the armor?
The cartoon version was remarkably better than the movie but it also lacked the armor and weapons from the book.
It’s not intended to be a straight adaptation. Heinlein presented it as a militaristic society formed along (what he considered) ideal lines, but Verhoeven filmed it as a refutation of all of those ideals. What I meant by “sucked at watching it” (apart from just being a smug dick about movies, which I often enjoy) is that if you approach it as a translation of the book to film, or just as a straightforward sci-fi action romp, you’re missing the fact that it’s a propaganda film for a fascist regime, and the director is using every ounce of sarcasm he can muster to point out how awful everything is. If you’re disappointed that you didn’t get any rivets to count, you missed the point.
Website is up. Trailer is not, but the official preview of the preview is up on Youtube (probably about 15 seconds of actual footage).
Yes, that’s Sabine.
That was my problem with the Starship Troopers movie too. I couldn’t get over the fact that there was a society that had achieved FTL and had massive starships and starbases, yet their infatnry was running around with glorified M16s and didn’t seem to have gear any better than what we have today. Given what Heinlein had envisioned in his book this was such a huge disappointment.
Hey, lots of us were hip to the satirical nature of the film, and think that was its biggest failure. I bet Fritz Hippler felt totally burned, though.
Yeah, they had FTL, but not air support or roofs for their fucking forts and they fought like a drag selected mob of riflemen in Command & Conquer 1.
See, this goes right to the fundamental problem with Starship Troopers-as-brilliant-satire apologists-- they’ve convinced themselves that everything illogical, nonsensical, and terrible in it is all part of the satire. It’s an unassailable position, from which they can smugly pat themselves on the back for “getting it” while everyone else doesn’t.
Right. I totally got the satire on the first viewing–it’s so crude and blatant, how could anyone seeing the film not get it? I also got no powered armor in a film named Starship Troopers. If you want to satirize Heinlein, great, go for it, but don’t leave out the freaking suits! Epic fail.
I would’ve paid double for a director’s cut which shows Neil Patrick Harris drag-selecting troopers on his monitor and cursing at them for not following his orders.
:-)
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I rather like Starship Troopers, but mostly because it is so unintentionally terrible in so many ways (much like the similarly hilarious Dungeons and Dragons movie) that it is hard not to laugh while watching it.
This is exactly why it’s a guilty pleasure movie for me.
Jeez, I did not mean to derail the thread with my off-handed wish for a more serious Starship Troopers. My apologies to the OP!
I do recall reading somewhere that the director and effects team on Starship Troopers started out intending to try to do powered armor in the film, but it quickly became obvious that it simply wasn’t going to work with their budget and technical ability, so they scrapped it early in pre-production. I would bet that the last decade has seen advancements that would make it much easier to produce now. Hell, the Iron Man series alone has practically paved the way for a movie where the main characters hang out in computerized armor for half the scenes.
Also, I enjoyed Starship Troopers for what it was, a campy action flick with some satirical political overtones, but let’s be realistic, it sucked as a movie about either the human condition as pertains to soldiers in combat (think Band of Brothers) or as a straight up sci-fi combat action flick (too much of the campy crap and the aforementioned ridiculously underpowered weapons and armor). So the end result is that I STILL want to see Starship Troopers done right, and I’d also like to see a Colonial Marines movie that DOESN’T revolve around Ripley, and a Star Wars movie that shows us the universe from the point of view of NORMAL people fighting the good fight without the benefit of Jedi powers and such.
Not to continue the Starship Troopers threadjack too far, but I thought Roughnecks was decent way back when. Did anyone see Invasion?
I’m excited for all things Star Wars coming out right now. I hate the scrapping of the EU as canon, but having a cohesive vision bodes well for the places they’l take the series. Can’t wait for the series this year, and still cautiously optimistic for all the movies, as well.
Sure seems a lot like Star Wars:Firefly.
I am ok with this! :D
So Sabine is a graffiti artist? So that explains the stylized Alliance logo on the back of A New Dawn. Sabine tagged it!
First episode was not perfect in any way, but it was so much better than 99% of the prequel-era material, that I could help but like it and look forward to more.
I really enjoyed the premiere of Rebels. It’s no Clone Wars, but it needs time.
I miss the sympathetic stormtroopers of Clone Wars. Having them be mindless drones feels so wrong now. This show feels like a step back.